Logically We Shouldn't Get Along
by seashell77
Summary: Alex and Dylan find comfort in each others' company after Hayley leaves for college. An acquaintance turns into a friend, turns into something a little bit more. Warning possible spoilers if you haven't seen season 4 yet.
1. Chapter 1: I miss her too

**This is my first Fanfic Yay! It's an unorthodox pairing, but I hope you guys like it as much as I do. I'm not sure there will be much romance in the first couple of chapters but don't worry there will be plenty of cuteness :) **

**I don't own Modern Family or any of the characters. **

Chapter 1: I miss her too

_'The stars are falling from the sky, and you're the reason why.'_ Alex paused at the door of her bedroom as she heard singing issuing from behind it. _'The moon is shining on your face, coz it finally feels it's found its place.'_ She slowly pushed open the door to see Dylan sitting on Hayley's bed, strumming his guitar.

'Oh sorry, you're probably here to study or something.' Dylan mumbled, putting away his guitar.

'No it's okay,' Alex shrugged. She made her way over to her own bed, moving the books so she could sit down. Dylan looked at her, feeling slightly self conscious.

'Sooo um, how's school going?' Dylan asked after an awkward silence. He'd never spoken to Alex before so he didn't know what to say.

'Really? How's school going? Is that the best you can come up with?' Alex looked up from her laptop and raised an eyebrow at Dylan.

'Well I don't know what to talk about with you.' Dylan said apologetically. 'You're all into books and stuff and well, I've never read a book in my life, unless you count the hungry hungry caterpillar, that book is awesome!'

'Play that song again.' Alex ordered, suddenly jumping up from her bed. She grabbed a huge case lay it down on the floor. Dylan watched curiously as she pulled a gigantic instrument out of it and balanced it on the floor.

'What...?' Dylan began but Alex fixed him with a look.

'Tell me the chords of your song.' She instructed. Dylan recited them, watching as she copied them neatly onto a piece of paper. Alex picked up her bow and began experimentally playing each chord, deciding whether she liked plucking or bowing better.

'Are we like jamming?' Dylan's face lit up in realisation.

'Yes, I must admit I like that song, even though it was inappropriate to sing in front of my whole family.' Alex smiled.

'Thank you, I thought they liked it though.'

'I don't think my parents liked the fact that it was about their daughter.' Alex smirked. 'Now I think I've got it.' She motioned for Dylan to pick up his guitar.

'Alright, one, two, three, four.' Dylan listened transfixed as Alex played a baseline, her bow moving smoothly against her cello. She quickly put it down at the bridge, plucking out a similar pattern to his guitar, looking up occasionally to smile at him. Dylan found himself smiling back, even though she fumbled a few chord changes she wasn't totally stuffing up his song.

'So what do you think?' Alex asked when they'd finished the song. She was beaming from ear to ear as she looked up at him.

'That's like the coolest bass ever!' Dylan enthused. 'I didn't know you could play them with that stick thing!' Alex's smile faltered slightly as she repressed the urge to correct him.

'Well now you have a topic to discuss with me.' She said kindly. 'You can ask me how my _cello_ playing is going.'

'Awesome,' Dylan brushed his fringe out of his eyes.

'I think it's really great that you write your own songs.' Alex continued. 'I always find it so hard to come up with things to write about.'

'You don't come up with songs!' Dylan said rather sharply. 'They come to you.' Alex bit back a sarcastic comment at the dreaminess in his voice. She observed the gangly man in front of her with a mixture of pity and curiosity. He shifted his guitar, almost trying to hide behind it, he felt uneasy under her gaze. As Alex scrutinized him, she fancied she saw a sort of sadness in his eyes, a hollow loneliness.

'So how's your t-shirt business going Dylan?' She asked finally. Dylan almost breathed a sigh of relief at being released from her inspection.

'Not so well.' Dylan looked at his feet. 'I haven't had much inspiration lately.'

'Have you been busy with other things?' Alex tilted her head to the side.

'Yeah, something like that.' Dylan muttered. He got to his feet and began packing away his guitar. 'I should probably get home, my mum will be getting worried.' He slung grabbed his guitar case and sauntered towards the door, surprised to see Alex behind him when he turned to say goodbye.

'It's alright, I miss her too.' Alex said quietly. Dylan looked at her, their eyes exchanging tales of loneliness and forced adjustment before he gulped.

'Well, goodbye.' Dylan raised his hand awkwardly and then left the room.

'Bye.' Alex whispered, letting out a sigh as she looked around her half empty room.

**Please review, as I said I'm new to the Fanfic community and would love to hear what you guys think of this story :) **


	2. Chapter 2: Lunch Man

**So I just want to say a big thank you to gypsy rosalie and and bookaholic2000 for their reviews, I absolutely love hearing from you guys. **

**Now without further ado let's get on with the next chapter. Of course I don't own any of the characters from this lovely TV show. **

Chapter 2: Lunch Man

'Alex honey, don't forget your assignment on mitosis!' Her mum called out from the kitchen. Alex rolled her eyes, '_like she even knows what mitosis is'_ she huffed. _'Gosh what is wrong with me? I'm even less well equipped to deal with the ignorance of my family lately.' _She glanced over at the vacant bed and sighed. It felt so weird without her here. Steeling her mind for the circus that was breakfast in the Dunphey house, Alex picked up her backpack and headed downstairs.

'There you are! Come on hurry up you're going to be late!' Her mum plonked some pancakes on her plate and ushered her over to the table. Alex sat across from her dad and brother who were playing games on their Ipad and Nintendo DS respectively, yelling and cracking jokes.

'Ooooh dad I just shot one in the head and he fell back and killed the one behind him!' Luke exclaimed, his eyes growing wide with the sheer awesomeness of the occurrence.

`No way!' Her dad exclaimed, tearing his eyes away from his Ipad just long enough to high five his son.

'Come on, stop the technology at the table!' Claire came over and ripped the Ipad out of her husband's hands. 'I need you guys to focus on eating breakfast so you can get out the door on time. You know how distracted you two get with your video games!'

'But I was almost...' Phil's voice trailed away as he caught sight of his wife's expression. 'I totally agree Claire, come on buddy put that down!' He grabbed Luke's video game away, making sure he saved it before handing it to his wife. Claire looked around at her family as they all put their heads down and silently ate their breakfast.

'What so we're not going to talk to each other over breakfast?' She threw her hands up.

'We haven't had a chance to do anything interesting yet!' Phil's voice became shrill and all his words ran together in his annoyance.

'I had a pretty interesting dream last night.' Luke looked up from his cereal. Alex rolled her eyes, _here we go_.

'I dreamed that school was cancelled because of a flood, but Alex wanted to go anyway because she's a nerd and it was all underwater! So we put on scuba gear so we could get from class to class...'

'Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon, Sodium, Magnesium...' Alex muttered under her breath, tuning out the ramblings of her brother.

'And then Reuben got eaten by a shark!' Luke exclaimed, almost falling off his chair from laughter.

'That's nice honey,' Claire smiled absent mindedly.

'That's awesome!' Phil exclaimed. 'How cool would it be to go to an underwater school!' Alex quickly finished off the last of her pancakes and raced upstairs to hide out before her father and Luke began discussing the logistics of how to build a school in the sea.

* * *

'Are you alright?' Sanjay Patel frowned at Alex.

'Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine.' Alex shook her head.

'Really, because I've had no competition whatsoever to answer all of the questions.' Sanjay raised his eyebrows. 'Don't leave me alone to wade through the pool of stupidity that is our class.'

'I know, it's hard being the only intelligent life form.' Alex sighed. 'I'll make more of an effort, I just have a lot on my mind.'

'That's more like it.' Sanjay grinned. 'We geniuses have to stick together.' The bell rang and his face turned into a scowl as they braced themselves for the onslaught that was lunchtime.

'Do you think any of the food will be recognisable this time?' Alex asked shrewdly as they grabbed a tray and joined the queue.

'Probably not, there's more scientific words in the ingredients list than my twenty page chemistry assignment.'

'You were just waiting for a chance to drop that into the conversation weren't you!' She accused her friend. 'I think twenty pages is a bit too much, it's a tenth grade paper not a PhD thesis.'

'Honestly I wouldn't even have to use real words, it's not like our teacher has much of a clue anyway.' He rolled his eyes. 'Did you hear him mispronounce zygote in class today?!'

'Why didn't your parents send you to a private school?' Alex asked. 'They're both doctors so surely they have the money.'

'They thought attending a public school would teach me humility.' Sanjay groaned. 'You know in the trenches with your fellow man and all that.'

'Wow that sure worked out well.' Alex muttered under her breath. She placed her tray down on the counter and looked up at the lunch lady. Sanjay noticed her eyes widen and her jaw dropped as she recognised the person in front of her. 'Dylan!' Dylan ashamedly pulled at the edge of his hairnet, trying not to make eye contact with her.

'Do you want the chicken or the beef?' He asked quietly.

'Chicken, what are you doing here?' Alex hissed.

'My mum said I have to get a job to pay the rent.' Dylan sighed. 'I'm not making much money from my t-shirt business anymore and our bass player just moved out of state.'

'But seriously a lunch lady?' Alex frowned. She watched as he plopped an unappetising spoonful of gloop onto her plate.

'I prefer lunch man.' Dylan said quite seriously. 'And they were the only place hiring. The pay isn't all that good, but it covers the bills and I get free food.'

'Why didn't you apply for an office job?' Alex asked.

'I don't think I'm smart enough for that.' Dylan confessed.

'Don't be silly.' Alex scolded. 'You're... well...' She fished around for a compliment to his intellect before giving up.

'It's okay, as long as I'm making money.' Dylan shrugged.

'Well I hope you have more luck finding a bass player for your band.' Alex said as Dylan scattered peas on her plate.

'Thank you, I guess I'll see you tomorrow.' Dylan gestured with his spoon.

'You actually talk to that imbecile?' Sanjay laughed as they made their way to an empty table. 'He's like a trained monkey walking around in clothes.'

'He's not that bad.' Alex found herself defending him before she even knew what had happened.

'Come on, everyone was surprised he even graduated. I thought for sure he'd be the first person to fail the SAT's.' Alex tuned out her friend's mean remarks and glanced back to where Dylan was slopping processed food onto people's trays. He was a nice enough guy, he didn't deserve to struggle this much in life.

* * *

The sound of the doorbell startled Alex out of her chemistry paper. She waited for a second to see if anyone else was going to get it before remembering that she was home alone. Putting down her school books with an exasperated sigh she trudged down the stairs and opened the door.

'Hi!' Dylan was standing there rather sheepishly.

'Hi, what are you doing here?' Alex asked, quite surprised to see him.

'I dunno, I think I just kind of came here out of force of habit.' Dylan shrugged.

'Okay, well do you want to come in?' Alex stepped back and Dylan came into the hall, looking around at all the family photos on the wall. 'So how was your first day at work?' She asked, the two of them still hovering awkwardly in the entrance.

'Good, the lunch ladies are all so nice, they pinch my cheeks and tell me that I'm too skinny all the time.' Dylan said. 'It's good, I get a lot of free food.'

'They sound nice.' Alex smiled.

'Yeah they are.' Dylan said. 'Hey listen I was thinking you played the cool bass sounding marshmallow or whatever so well the other day maybe you could be our new bass player!'

'Really?' Alex raised an eyebrow.

'Yeah sure, you could keep playing the Portobello and everything, it sounds cool.' Dylan nodded enthusiastically. 'At least until we find a new bass player. I know you're busy with all your studying and stuff.'

'Okay I guess I can help you out for a little while.' Alex sighed.

'Cool thanks!' Dylan high fived her and left. Alex stared after him, shaking her head. Why did she feel a sudden urge to help him? A week ago she'd thought he was a brainless dweeb who didn't deserve the time of day.

**What's this *gasp* an excuse for them to spend more time together :O If you guys enjoyed please leave a review, the same goes for any criticisms, just please keep them constructive :)**


	3. Chapter 3: It's called a cello, Dylan

**Yay another chapter! This was the only thing getting me through my mountain of essays this week. Quick thank yous to Heavy Metal Smile, gypsy rosalie and bookaholic2000 for reviews. Thank you so much for your kind words and notes :) I hope you guys liked this chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it :) Plus also season 5 of modern family starts on the 25th :) :) :) **

**Of course I don't own any of the characters. **

Chapter 3: It's called a cello, Dylan.

Alex was taking one of her rare breaks from study when she heard the jingle of a Skype notification. Putting down the milk she was pouring into a bowl of cereal, she walked over to the laptop to check who was calling.

'Hey, how's college?' She asked as she saw it was her sister calling.

'Oh hey,' Hayley said upon seeing it was her sister. 'Yeah college is awesome, like high school but with more drinking.'

'What classes are you taking?' Alex questioned.

'I dunno, like psychology and something to do with women's rights, and I can't remember the other two.' Hayley replied absent mindedly. 'Have you dorked up our room yet?'

'No, it's the same as always.' Alex shrugged. 'I decided to wait a few weeks just in case the college realised that they'd made a mistake in letting you in.'

'Uhh don't you have a virginity to get back to?' Hayley rolled her eyes.

'Don't you have a teacher to seduce?' Alex shot back.

'Whatever, just get mum.' Hayley ordered. She watched as her younger sister disappeared from view.

'Mum, Hayley wants to skype with you.' Alex called from the bottom of the stairs.

'If she makes me send any more clothes...' Claire muttered under her breath as she brushed past Alex. Smiling to herself, Alex climbed the stairs, looking forward to starting on the novel for English.

She'd just reached the top of the stairs when there was a knock at the door. Letting out a groan of annoyance, Alex descended the stairs to answer the door.

'Hey grab your mellow, we're going to be late for band practice.' Dylan said, pushing past her and racing up the stairs.

'What?' Alex threw up her hands in a mixture of confusion and frustration.

'Come on, you have to meet all the guys and learn our songs.' Dylan grabbed her cello case and raced back downstairs.

'Mum, I've got band practice, be back in a few hours!' Alex called over her shoulder as she followed Dylan out to his car. She watched disapprovingly as Dylan tossed her cello into the back seat and gave the passenger door a bit of a kick to open it. 'I don't think I've ever been in your car before.' She stated nervously.

'It's a little bit loud, but don't worry I always turn the music up so you can't hear it.' Dylan said matter of factly.

'Oh, that's good then.' Alex said, unsure what else to say in response to such a remark. 'So where does your band usually practice?'

'In Brian's Garage, when we first started practicing we played at Craig's place, but it took ages to get the drum kit from Brian's to Craig's so we decided it would be easier to just go to the drum kit.' Dylan explained.

'That was a good idea.' There was an edge of sarcasm to Alex's voice.

'Yeah it was.' Dylan turned to smile at her. Despite herself, Alex found her lips twitching into a smile as well. '_What is wrong with me?_' she thought as Dylan drove to rehearsal.

* * *

'Hey everyone this is Alex, she's going to be taking Neil's place as our new bass player.' Dylan introduced her to his band.

'That's a lot bigger than Neil's guitar case was.' Craig motioned towards the cello case in Dylan's hand.

'It's a Montello.' Dylan said wisely. 'It's like a bass but cooler because you can play it with a stick.' The other two band members nodded appreciatively.

'It's called a cello, Dylan.' Alex sighed exasperatedly.

'Yeah whatever.' He put down her case. 'This is Craig our lead guitarist, and Brian our drummer.' The guys raised a hand in greeting as he said their names.

'So does she know any of our songs?' Craig asked, looking at the bespectacled girl in front of him.

'She knows _In the Moonlight_ already.' Dylan replied. 'We'll just have to slowly teach her the others.'

'She's right here.' Alex frowned, standing up with her cello in her hand.

'Yeah we know.' Dylan gave her a funny look. 'Okay let's play in the moonlight, stand over here.' He steered Alex towards a spot on his left.

'One, two, one, two, three, four!' Brian yelled. Alex slid her bow across the cello's strings, smiling at how it sounded with the band. She was the only one without an amp, yet because of the natural resonance of her instrument, her bass line was easily heard over the other guitar.

_'Coz baby, baby, I just wanna do you, do you. Do you wanna do me, do me, underneath the moonlight, the moonlight.'_ Alex joined in the chorus, adding a high harmony to the line. Dylan looked over in shock at the addition of another voice. Alex turned her head slightly to give him a small smile and he felt his insides twist. He nodded his approval, deciding he liked her tweak of the song. He watched her as he continued to sing, his eyes taking in the furrow of her brow as she concentrated on plucking her cello. Her shiny black hair cascaded down her shoulders, a piece falling over her face as she leant forward over her instrument.

_'...Till the sunrise.'_ Dylan sung the final line of the last chorus and turned to look at his band.

'So what do you think of her bellow playing?' He said proudly.

'Man all basses should be played with sticks!' Craig exclaimed.

'It'll make us look really fancy!' Brian agreed.

'Right it's settled then, you're in the band.' Dylan beamed at Alex. 'Also the harmony you did was so cool, I was thinking you guys should all sing in falsetto in the high part of the chorus!'

'We'll sound like a real rock band.' Brian rubbed his hands together excitedly.

'Okay let's run through it one more time and then we'll teach you some of our other songs.' Dylan suggested, turning to the rest of the band to see if they agreed.

* * *

'So what did you think of our band?' Dylan asked. They had stopped for hotdogs on the way home and were now sitting in his car, eating.

'The guys seem really nice.' Alex said with a mouth half full of meat. 'And I like the songs, it's such a nice change from playing classical music all the time.'

'Awesome, Brian and Craig said you really rocked it.' Dylan grinned at her. Alex smiled back but didn't answer. She kept thinking back to the band practice, how alive she felt with the music vibrating through her chest. Her eyes had kept wandering to where Dylan was standing and on more than one occasion she'd caught herself thinking of how hot he looked with his hair all messed up. A guilty expression crossed her face_, 'she shouldn't think like that, this was Hayley's boyfriend, and he was a lot older than her._' Dylan drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the song on the radio _'Hayley's __**ex**__ boyfriend,'_ another voice in her head reminded her.

'I...I should probably get home, my parents will be starting to worry.' Alex lied.

'Sure,' Dylan started the engine. He stole a quick sidelong glance at her, enjoying the way she looked up at him nervously.

'So umm thanks for letting me join your band.' Alex said awkwardly as they pulled into her driveway.

'I'll be around tomorrow evening so I can teach you some of our other songs.' Dylan replied.

'Okay, I have lacrosse practice until five.' Alex scanned her brain for any other prior commitments. 'But any time after that should be fine.'

'Right, I'll see you tomorrow.' Dylan waved awkwardly.

'Yeah, bye.' Alex frowned at the high pitched, nervous quality her voice had suddenly taken on. Disgusted with herself she got out of the car and raced up to the house without looking back.

**Sooooo...what did you think? I'm going to try to update weekly, perhaps fridays, so until next time please leave a review below. All feedback is most welcome :) **


	4. Chapter 4: Dumb yourself down

**I'd just like to take a moment to thank everyone for reading, it means a lot to me. Thank you to gypsyrosalie for her awesome review for last chapter. If you can take a second to review after reading it would mean so much to me, I'm an aspiring writer and would appreciate any tips. Without further ado, I'll let you get on with reading :) **

Chapter 4: Dumb yourself down

'Woah, that sounds awesome!' Alex stopped playing her cello in shock as her dad burst into the room.

'Dad, what are you doing?' Alex screeched.

'I was just walking past and heard you jamming, is that a new song for the concert band?' Phil beamed.

'Really? When have you ever heard the youth orchestra play anything other than classical music?' Alex snapped. The look on her dad's face made her instantly regret it. 'Dylan asked me to play in his band.'

'Dylan the villan!' Phil beamed. 'That's awesome, now I'll have an excuse to go out and see some great music!' He sat down on the spare bed and looked intently at her. Alex sighed, and went back to playing her cello. It was usually best just to pretend her dad wasn't there. She played through both of the songs once more, rolling her eyes when her dad clapped at the end of each one.

'Wait, why are you stopping?' Phil's face fell as his daughter packed away her cello.

'Dad, I have school.' Alex frowned, pointing to the clock on the wall. Her father looked at the clock for a moment, wondering where the time had gone.

'Right, well you should probably get ready for that.' He nodded. 'Your mother, I mean we would be very angry if you were running late.'

'Good save dad.' Alex smiled, amused by her father's obvious foot in the mouth syndrome. He nodded thoughtfully and left the room.

'Sweet and sour chicken!' Alex grimaced as she heard the exclamation, knowing that her dad had once again tripped on the step he'd failed to fix for all these years. 'I've got to fix that step!' Came the trademark mutter. Alex sighed and turned back to packing for school, dumping textbook after heavy textbook into her backpack. With a groan she swung the heavy bag onto her back and trudged down the stairs to where her mum was waiting.

'Luke, Come on we're ready to go!' Claire yelled up the stairs, ushering Alex out into the car.

'I was down here the whole time.' Luke emerged from the loungeroom, Nintendo DS in hand.

'No, you're not taking that to school young man.' Claire took it out of his hands and put it on the hall table, pushing her son out the door as she did so.

* * *

'So how many pages is your assignment?' Sanjay whispered as the teacher rounded the room collecting essays.

'Only five pages,' Alex said, eying the thick wad of paper in Sanjay's hand. 'It was hard to keep to the word limit, but I thought any more would be unnecessary.'

'I just wanted to cover everything.' Sanjay said defensively.

'I don't think there's much in the whole of science which you haven't covered.' Alex muttered under her breath.

'Are you still hanging out with that deadbeat lunch lady?' Sanjay asked after he'd handed in his assignment.

'Yes, what of it?' Alex's eyes narrowed.

'Why do you even bother with that nincompoop?' Sanjay had to suddenly lower his voice as he attracted stares from the people around them. 'Wouldn't you much rather hang out with someone smarter?'

'Of course I would, but I live with a house full of idiots so I'm kind of used to it by now.' She shrugged.

'It doesn't matter whether you're fluent in moron or not, you deserve to be challenged intellectually instead of having to dumb yourself down all the time.' Sanjay looked sincerely into her eyes.

'It's not like he's my boyfriend or anything.' Alex's voice took on a slightly higher note as she said it. 'I'm just doing him a favour.' Sanjay gave her a look but didn't push the topic. He turned back to his class work with a little too much gusto, yet Alex could swear she could still feel his eyes upon her from time to time. She shook off the feeling, assuming it was all in her head. The only other explanation she could think of was that he was trying to psycho-analyse her behaviour, and that was implausible because with a neuro-surgeon for a father, Sanjay often scoffed at the imprecision of psychology.

'So would you like to get together and study this weekend for the history exam?' Sanjay finally spoke again after the bell had rung. Alex shoved her science textbook back into her already bursting bag.

'We never study together.' Alex finally looked at him, studying his features intently. 'Exams are more like a competition between us, if we study together then we'll be on the same level.'

'I thought you might just want to level the playing field.' Sanjay teased. 'Give you a fighting chance at possibly getting the same mark as me.'

'Well if you're going to insult my intellect like that then I'll have to refuse.' Alex replied after a stony silence.

'Come on Alex, I was only joking.' For once in his life Sanjay actually looked sorry. 'It'll be nice to actually have an intellectual conversation without being interrupted by ignorant teachers and students.'

'That would be nice.' Alex smiled. 'How about Sunday morning?'

'That suits me.' Sanjay wrote it into his daily planner as they joined the lunch queue.

'Hey Alex, would you like some of this orange stuff, I think it's broccoli.' Dylan grinned and held up a ladle.

'Broccoli is green Dylan.' Alex's smile froze on her face as she corrected him.

'Oh, it must be cauliflower then.' Dylan corrected himself. 'So am I still able to drop by this afternoon to teach you some more of the songs?'

'Yes that's still fine.' Alex confirmed.

'Dude have you heard her play the fellow, it's awesome!' Dylan beamed at Sanjay as he plopped a ladleful of mush onto his plate.

'Yes, I've witnessed her perform Bach's cello suite no. 1. She has the potential to become quite the virtuoso with a bit of hard work and determination.' Sanjay puffed himself up. Alex frowned at this backhanded compliment.

'You can play the theme song from Scooby Doo? That's awesome!' Dylan exclaimed, beaming at Alex. She smiled awkwardly back, unwilling to explain while Sanjay was sniggering cruelly beside her.

'Alright I better go before my lunch liquefies any further. I'll see you this afternoon.' Alex escaped to a table, cheeks reddening.

'Seriously, that guy?' Sanjay frowned at her.

'You didn't have to be such a pretentious jerk.' She scolded. His face whitened as he was confronted by her anger. Silently he stabbed rather aggressively at his peas, not daring to look at her throughout the whole meal.

* * *

Upon hearing the clunking of Dylan's engine, Alex jumped up from her bed -sending numerous textbooks flying -and ran downstairs, anxious to beat her mother to the door.

'Dylan, what are you doing here?' Alex froze halfway down the staircase as her mum opened the door.

'Umm I'm here to see Alex.' Dylan scratched his head.

'Alex?' Trepidation was evident in Claire's voice. 'Alex, honey why exactly is Dylan here to see you?'

'I'm just filling in as a bass player for his band.' Alex stood her ground under her mum's most powerful guilt producing stare.

'So why is Dylan here alone?' Claire's voice was falsely friendly for Dylan's sake but her face, which was turned towards Alex, was thunderous.

'He's teaching me the songs.' Alex gulped but stayed firm.

'Well I'm in the mood for a little music, why don't you guys practice in the living room.' Claire suggested in a tone that dared her daughter to refuse.

'Sure, you'll just have to tear Dad and Luke away from their video game.' Alex grinned triumphantly.

'Fine.' Claire almost hissed the single syllable. 'But you better keep your door open young lady.'

'We will.' Alex smiled sweetly at her mum before running back up the stairs.

'Hi Mrs. D,' Dylan smiled awkwardly before following Alex, uncomfortable under her mother's disapproving gaze.

'It's too quiet up there,' Claire was pacing the living room, much to the annoyance of her husband. He craned his neck to see around her as she once again walked in front of the TV screen. 'I haven't heard any music for the last two minutes!'

'Relax, he has to teach her all the notes and stuff.' Phil said, desperately wanting his wife to stop interrupting the video game.

'Or perhaps they're making babies.' Luke chucked in nonchalantly, grinning manically at the look of panic that crossed his mother's face.

'That's it I'm going up there!' Claire burst out, rushing from the room.

'Not cool Luke!' His dad scolded him half-heartedly.

'What it got her to leave didn't it.' Luke shrugged. He looked up in horror as his mum re-entered the room. But luckily she hadn't heard him, she had simply returned for the washing basket to use as an alibi.

Claire paused at the doorway of Alex's room, steeling herself for what she might possibly see. She took a deep breath and looked down at the washing basket, horrified to notice that it was empty. Thinking quickly she darted into her bedroom to fill it with clothes and then returned to her daughter's room.

'Mum, what you doing?' Alex's voice was more wary than annoyed, she had foreseen constant interruptions throughout the practice. What she was most worried about was the gradual descent into madness her mother was prone to when she thought her children were in danger of making a mistake.

'I just thought I'd drop off some washing.' Claire bustled over to the chest of draws and began loading her own clothes into Alex's draw. What she hadn't noticed when grabbing a handful of clothes was that a pair of her skimpier underpants had gotten caught up in the pile. She hadn't noticed this at all, that was until it broke free and fell onto the floor.

'No, uh-uh, this isn't yours, it's not even mine!' Claire began babbling in embarrassment. She picked up the pair of undies and shoved it into her jeans pocket. 'I don't know where these came from, they certainly don't belong to anyone in this house.'

'Mum just quit while you're behind.' Alex sighed, burying her face in her hands.

'I don't know where these came from, perhaps a neighbour's underwear somehow got into our washing machine.' Claire started backing from the room. 'You guys are sounding great though. But the key to getting better is lots of playing. Lots of playing, and no silence.' She laughed awkwardly before darting from the room. Alex peeked through her fingers as she heard her mum stumble on the stairs.

'Phil!' Claire yelled in annoyance, signalling that she hadn't broken her neck falling down the stairs.

'I'm sorry about that.' Alex grimaced. 'I'd say she's not usually like that, but you've been around my family long enough to know that's not true.'

'It's okay.' Dylan shrugged. 'I like your family, even though they're mostly crazy, their heart is in the right place.' He tucked a strand of hair behind Alex's ear and she curiously found herself fighting back the urge to giggle. She frowned and shook her head, trying to rid herself of the feeling.

'Right, let's take it from the top shall we?' She suggested.

'Yeah sure.' Dylan's smile slid off his face and he lowered his gaze to stare awkwardly at his guitar. When he looked up again Alex was rearranging her notes, shuffling the pages and smoothing them out neatly before putting them back in order. He watched her with curiosity, surprised to find that he found her pedantic fussiness strangely endearing. Alex was nothing like her sister, but Dylan found that oddly refreshing, if a little intimidating.

'Which band is that dude with the puffy hair from?' Dylan asked suddenly, pointing to the t-shirt Alex was wearing.

'That's Einstein, he wasn't in a band, he was a scientist.' Alex fought hard against it, but a hint of annoyance still coloured her voice.

'Oh, my bad, I just saw the crazy hair and the tongue out and kind of assumed...' Dylan scuffed his feet awkwardly on the carpet. Alex's gut did a strange backflip and she found that she was angry at herself for making Dylan feel stupid.

'No it's okay, now that you've explained it, I can see that it was an honest mistake to make.' Alex put her hand on his arm. Dylan looked down curiously at the hand on his arm, with its long, pen stained fingers. It wasn't as small as her sister's hands, but there was a caring warmth that seemed to radiate out of it. Dylan gulped, _why was he suddenly thinking like this?_

**Thank you so much for reading, hope you enjoyed it. I'm planning on having Dylan calling Alex's cello something else as an ongoing thing, if any one has any suggestions for words he could use, please either PM or leave it in a review. Also I've decided Friday will be my upload day, but I can't guarantee it won't slip my mind every now and then; the best way to make sure you don't miss a new chapter is to follow :) Reviews would brighten my day :) **


	5. Chapter 5: The Song

**Thank you to gypsy rosalie and bookaholic2000 for their lovely reviews :) Also I need to make a quick apology, I didn't realise until now but none of my scene breaks have been showing up. Sorry if this has caused any confusion, I plan to go back through the previous chapters and fix it all up :) Thank you to gypsy rosalie for teaching me how to insert the scene breaks. **

Chapter 5: The Song

'So honey, how did the practice go?' Claire pounced on her daughter as soon as Alex had seen Dylan out.

'Fine, I learnt three new songs.' Alex smiled.

'Well Sanjay called while you were practicing.' Claire watched her daughter closely. 'He wanted to confirm you were still available to study on Sunday.'

'Oh, I should call him to confirm.' Alex said vaguely. She was busy watching the facial expression of her mother as a smile was tugging at the corner of her lips and a manic glint appeared in her eyes.

'So both Dylan and Sanjay.' Claire nudged Alex with her elbow. 'I guess I no longer have to worry about you being sad and unpopular.'

'First off I'm not dating either of them.' Alex frowned. 'And secondly, you need to stop buying into society's ridiculous perceptions that you need to be surrounded by millions of friends to be happy. There are all different types of happiness and mine just happens to be surrounded by books and expanding my knowledge. That doesn't make me weird or nerdy, it just means I'm different to you.'

'See why do you keep doing that?' Claire whined. 'You keep making me feel bad for trying to ensure you get a well rounded teenage experience. I'm not asking you to change who you are, I just want you to let your hair down and do something crazy once in a while. So you can save your patronising speech for when you finally take over the world.' Alex shook her head in incredulity as her mum stormed off. Some day she'd dissect that brain to try and understand what on earth went on inside of that woman.

'That sounded awesome!' Her dad called from the living room. 'When are you guys going to perform?'

'I don't know dad, I've got to learn all the songs first.' Alex entered the lounge room to see her dad and brother still at their video game.

'Come on Phil, no more video games.' Claire roused on the two guys. 'Maybe you should use the time to do some of the things you've been promising to do for ages. Like I don't know, fix the step, change the light bulbs, or clean out the garage.'

'Sure, I'll get onto those things this weekend.' Phil nodded vaguely.

'That's okay, maybe I'll just call my dad to help get it done.' Claire walked over to the phone.

'No, don't bother Jay with things like that, I'll get right on it. Luke, buddy, do you want to learn how to clean out a garage?' Phil had leapt up at the mention of his father in law and was already going down to the garage. Alex watched in amusement as her brother trudged along behind him, knowing full well that they'd get distracted within ten minutes of cleaning. For now, though, Claire was wearing a triumphant smirk at having tricked her husband into doing his chores.

'And that is how it's done.' She said to herself as she did the dishes. Alex shook her head and went back upstairs, deciding to seek refuge from the craziness of her family.

A jingle on her computer attracted her attention as she entered the room. Walking over to her laptop she saw that Sanjay was trying to Skype with her.

'Hey Sanjay, sorry I haven't returned your call.' Alex smiled as she sat down in front of her computer.

'That's okay, actually I can't do Sunday any more, would it be possible to reschedule for Saturday morning instead?' Sanjay was brisk and business-like as always.

'Hang on a sec, Dylan wanted to practice again on Saturday, but I think he has hockey in the morning so that should be okay.' Alex said slowly.

'How did the practice go?' Sanjay's eyes narrowed. 'Did you lose many brain cells interacting with him for an hour?'

'Actually we were rehearsing for two hours and he's not that dumb.' Alex said, knowing it would get to him.

'If you'd like I could perform a neuro test on you tomorrow, just to make sure all your mental faculties are still intact.'

'That would be nice, though perhaps it would be a better idea to do it after our study session. Just to make sure I haven't damaged any brain cells when I bang my head on the wall after being forced to listen to your pomp and circumstance.'

'Ah, Alex, as witty as ever.' Sanjay smiled. 'Well it was lovely chatting to you, I shall see you tomorrow.'

'À demain.' Alex signed off.

* * *

'Ah Sanjay, come on in.' Claire had beaten Alex to the door yet again.

'Don't freak out mum, we'll leave the door open.' Alex told her.

'No, it's okay. You can have the door shut if you want, I don't mind.' Claire tried to look nonchalant but there was a neurotic glint in her eyes.

'Peut être elle a besoin de test de cerveau.' Alex muttered to Sanjay. (Perhaps she's in need of a brain test.)

'C'est pas necessaire,' Sanjay returned. 'Elle est évidemment folle !' (It's not necessary, she's obviously crazy!)

'I know you're talking about me!' Claire yelled after them as they climbed the stairs. 'At least I'm pretty sure you are!'

'You know you'd have grounds to put her in a home.' Sanjay pointed out.

'Do you think they'd take the whole family?' Alex sighed.

'It's worth a shot.' He shrugged in response.

'Oh well I suppose we better get onto studying America's Independence from Brittan.' Alex sat down on the floor and pulled her textbooks towards her.

'Alex...' Sanjay broke the brief silence which had hung in the air while they turned to their colour coded notes.

'Yes?' Alex looked up when a few seconds had passed without him continuing. She was surprised to see a hint of desperation and self doubt in his eyes.

'No, it doesn't matter.' Sanjay shook his head. 'It was a silly idea.'

'Ummm...okay.' Alex turned back to her notes without a second thought.

* * *

'Hey,' Dylan was standing awkwardly on Alex's front step when she went to put the garbage out.

'Oh hey, how long have you been standing there?' Alex frowned.

'Not long,' Dylan took the garbage bag from her and took it to the bin.

'How was your hockey game?'

'Good, we won.' Dylan shrugged. 'I'm hoping we'll be able to get through three more songs today. That way next time we have band practice we'll be able to play some more songs.'

'Yeah playing the same two songs over and over did get a bit repetitive.' Alex agreed. She led him upstairs and unpacked her cello.

'Okay so this one is the newest song I've written; but that was like a month ago so all the other guys already know it.' Dylan flicked his hair out of his eyes and began to play his guitar. Alex rested her chin in her hand but quickly corrected the movement, finding it looked too swoony. Dylan closed his eyes as he began to caress the lyrics with his voice.

_Baby why'd you have to go and leave me,_

_I feel so alone._

_I guess you don't need me_

_Now you're all grown. _

_I hope you can really make something of yourself,_

_Build the life you told me about. _

_Whatever you do, just remember please, _

_I'll be here waiting in case you come back to me. _

_Maybe I'm a loser for holding on_

_To something that is long gone. _

_You've probably already met somebody new,_

_But I'll cling to my dreams of getting back with you. _

_Please, please baby, _

_Stop driving me crazy. _

_I need to know if there's still hope for us, _

_My one and only._

_All I want is your happiness, _

_Even if it's without me in your life._

_Are you safe, are you thinking of me?_

_Do you ever think of me?_

_Just pick up the phone _

_And let me know_

_Should I wait_

_Or should I move on?_

_Maybe I'm a loser for holding on_

_To something that is long gone. _

_You've probably already met somebody new,_

_But I'll cling to my dreams of getting back with you. _

_Please, please baby, _

_Stop driving me crazy. _

_I need to know if there's still hope for us, _

_My one and only._

'What do you think?' Dylan opened his eyes as he strummed the last note. A hot, burning sensation was twisting through Alex's abdomen as her mouth opened and closed silently. 'Good you're lost for words; that's what I was going for.'

'Yeah it was great!' Alex finally managed to choke out. _'Just great, I'm going to spend an hour learning a song about how he's not yet over my sister.' _

**I hope you enjoyed this scene, I'm still a little unsure whether the song sounds like something Dylan would write. Reviews are appreciated :)**


	6. Chapter 6: Deep and Emotional and Stuff

**This chapter is a bit of a short one so please forgive me, the next chapter will be longer I promise! Also I'd just like to say a big welcome to my new followers, great to have you along for the ride :) **

Chapter 6: Deep and Emotional and Stuff

'So have you written any new songs?' Alex asked as she and Dylan were setting up their instruments. The other three members of the band were banging around and cracking jokes.

'Woah, that's so weird you asked because I'm actually working on something right now!' Dylan turned to look at her, eyes wide in shock. 'I think it's going to be a real hit! My last song wasn't all that inspired but this song is really deep and emotional and stuff.'

'That sounds great, you'll have to play some for me.' Alex smiled.

'Remind me next time I'm at your place.' Dylan nodded. He watched Alex as she turned back to her instrument, tightening the strings on her bow in preparation to play. Her hair fell over her face in a curtain, shielding her features from his scrutiny. Instead he glanced at the shiny strands of hair, wondering what they smelt like, what it'd feel like to run his fingers through her glossy hair. Alex looked up as he let out a sigh, her insides turning to hot chocolate and marshmallows as she saw the way he was looking at her. She wondered what it would feel like to have Dylan serenade her, what the other girls in school would say when they saw her holding his hand. She coughed to hide the giggle which had escaped her lips and stood up suddenly, lugging her cello over to her position.

'Right guys,' with one last stolen glance Dylan had taken his position at the microphone, guitar casually slung over one shoulder. 'I've already taught Alex a lot of our songs, so we should be able to just dive straight in.'

Dylan noticed throughout the practice that Alex tended to glance up at him from under her hair, looking quickly away again if she made eye contact. He watched this phenomenon curiously, it seemed so out of character for her yet somehow creepily reminiscent of her sister, even if she did lack the brazen self confidence that Hayley possessed. Yet there was something else that Alex possessed, a quiet confidence in her intellectual capabilities which would never have her at the feet of a man. Dylan could see that there was a longing for romance in her, but she'd never be the type of girl to need it and cry about some boy. That was the thing that made her so special, the lack of desperation, the dignity she possessed. Instead Dylan seemed to feel self conscious in her presence, not wanting to put his foot in his mouth and sound stupid to such an intellect. He could see that sometimes she simply humoured his ignorance, and that pained him greatly. He never would've seen himself as the 'trophy boyfriend,' yet if he ended up dating Alex he would become exactly that.

_'Woah, date Alex, when did I start considering what it would be like to date her?'_ His brow furrowed as this thought crossed his mind.

'Yo Dylan, what's going on man?' Craig called from his side. 'You stopped singing after the first verse.'

'Oh, did you guys finish without me?' Dylan mumbled as he came back down to earth.

'Yeah, we hoped you might stop staring into space eventually.' Brian called from the drum kit.

'Sorry, just a lot on my mind.' Dylan messed up his hair. 'Let's take it from the top, I'll stay in the moment this time.'

**Hmm so it looks like someone might have feelings for a certain bespectacled girl... what ever will happen next? Leave me a short review and let me know what you think. **


	7. Chapter 7: Stoned

**I'm sure you'll be glad to hear this chapter is longer and I think it's quite humorous as well. Thank you to gypsy rosalie and bookaholic2000 again for their reviews and to lulu54 welcome, I'm so glad you ship Alex/Dylan as well, strap in for a whole lot of cuteness :) (it's coming I promise, they've just got to get there!) **

Chapter 7: Stoned

'Hey Alex!' She looked up from her textbook and getting up warily, walked to the window. As she opened the window she was struck hard in the face by an unidentified flying object. With a yell she fell backwards, clutching her face as she lay sprawled on the floor.

'I'm so sorry, are you okay?' Dylan jumped through her window and knelt beside her.

'How did you get up here?' Alex asked, dazed by the sight of blood running from her nose.

'I used to climb up here all the time when I was dating Hayley.' He shrugged.

'Don't you think that it might've been easier just to do that!' Alex shrieked.

'Well I didn't really want to scare you; a face at the window can be quite creepy.' Dylan explained.

'My nose would much prefer it next time!' Alex winced as she tried to sit up.

'Careful.' Dylan put his hand on her back to support her. She let out a whimper as she caught sight of the blood on her hands and promptly fainted. With a sigh Dylan picked her up and lay her on the bed, cleaning the blood from her hands so she wouldn't see it when she came around.

'Did I faint?' Alex asked groggily as her eyes opened once again. Dylan was sitting beside her bed, watching her intently.

'Shhh just take it easy.' Dylan pushed her back down and awkwardly patted her hand. He'd seen people do this all the time on TV and it seemed to have a comforting effect on the patient.

'Thank you, if you could get me an icepack and some tissues that would be great.' Alex sunk back into the pillows, her face still throbbing in protest.

'Here, what would you like me to do?' Dylan returned and handed her the items she requested, standing about wringing his hands. He longed to make up for his mistake and to help her through her pain.

'No, it's okay.' Alex said, mopping up any leftover blood and placing the icepack on her tender nose. Dylan paced nervously before sitting back by her beside and patting her hand awkwardly again.

'I'm really sorry; I never meant to hurt you.' Dylan's brown eyes were full of sincerity.

'I know, it was just an accident.' Alex said reassuringly. He stopped patting her hand and clasped it in his, smiling down at her. Alex felt the warmth of his hand spreading throughout her whole body and she smiled despite the pain. The gesture caused a fluttering feeling in her stomach as well as a sudden rush of pins and needles. She gulped and cast around for a topic to keep her mind off the weird feelings. 'So what did you come to see me about anyway?'

'Oh yeah, I've made a big decision and I want your advice.' Dylan started tentatively.

'My advice?' Alex did a double take.

'Yeah, you're really smart, and you've always been nice to me.' Dylan flashed her a winning smile. 'Even though all the lunch ladies are super nice, I've decided it's time for me to aim for bigger and better things. All musicians have day jobs until they make it big and after a lot of thought I've decided that I'd like to be a child care worker.'

'That's great!' Alex enthused, frankly surprised that a viable job option had been his first choice.

'Yeah, so I was hoping you'd be able to help me with the details of the decision and also I need help to study for the entrance exam.' Dylan watched her cautiously.

'Of course, I'm happy to help.' Alex nodded.

'Are you sure, you're already helping me a lot with the band.' Dylan hesitated.

'It's no problem at all. I don't know how to say this without sounding too corny but being around you is helping me to feel slightly more like a normal person, instead of a nerd.' Alex said the last sentence in a rush. 'Oh, that did sound corny.'

'No, it's okay, I think it's sweet.' Dylan grinned. 'You'll help me get more smarter and I'll help you with your social skills.'

'Okay well first lesson, it's smarter not more smarter and I think that's a lovely deal.' Alex smiled easily once the rectification had been made.

'See, you're already doing such a good job already.' Dylan seemed unperturbed by the correction. 'Here, you've got to take the icepack off, ten minutes on, ten minutes off.' He let go of her hand and lifted the icepack, checking the bruised, bloody mess that lay beneath. 'Whew, okay it's not broken.'

'How do you know all this?' Alex exclaimed.

'I play hockey, you wouldn't believe the amount of times people take a ball to the face in that sport.' Dylan explained. 'It's different for a guy, a broken nose is cool and you get to rock the Owen Wilson look. But it would've been terrible to make a mess of your face.' He smiled kindly down on her and Alex felt her heart backflip. She pushed down the disturbing feelings and cast around for safe conversation territory.

'So are you going to go to a college to study child care?' She asked.

'I think I'll just take a community college course, that way I'm still here to practice with my band and I can work on my t-shirts in my spare time.'

'Do you mind if I ask why you're interested in working with kids? I never would've guessed that as a career path for you.' Alex questioned.

'I'm like super good with kids.' Dylan beamed proudly. 'I think the trick is to talk to them like you would anyone else.'

'I'm sure they wouldn't have any trouble understanding you.' Alex smiled sweetly. Dylan's face crinkled for a moment but he ignored the comment, he had basically just stoned her after all.

'I can't wait to settle down and have my own. It would be awesome to have a little dude running around the house!' Dylan continued.

'Well it's got to be better than serving unidentifiable gloop to school kids,' Alex shrugged. 'You'll have to make up a list of what you want to work on so I can help you study.'

'Okay but we'll wait until your nose heals; we don't want to overstress your brain if it's damaged.' Dylan put a caring hand on her shoulder.

'That might be a problem if my brain was in my nose, or your level work was actually difficult.' Alex muttered. Dylan's face tightened and he stood up.

'You know what there's no need to be mean, you complain about feeling awkward in social situations and being teased for being a nerd yet you make me feel bad about not being as smart as you. It's awesome that you're like super brainy and all, but you need to use those talents to help people, not to feel all superior and stuff.' Dylan crossed his arms over his chest.

'You're right.' Alex sighed. 'I'm really sorry; I guess I'm just a little irritable from the pain. But you've got to understand what it's like for me, having to listen to people who don't know what they're talking about all day long. After a while I just snap and get a little condescending.'

'That's alright, I guess I never realised how hard it is to be smart.' Dylan nodded solemnly.

'And I never realised how difficult it is to be...well you.' Alex said diplomatically. 'I promise from now on I will not make anymore comments such as that.'

'Okay deal, and I won't throw any more rocks at the window.' Dylan grimaced. 'We'll swap numbers so I can just text you or something instead.'

'Yes please do!' Alex groaned, putting the icepack back onto her throbbing nose.

**We all knew that these two dating was going to be a little bit of a disaster, if anyone thought Alex was going to get hurt you sure called it! To all those who thought the name of this chapter was referring to a drug problem GOTCHA :P I don't think Dylan is one for drugs and Alex wouldn't get dragged into that nonsense. Also I just realised that their names don't really allow for a cute couple name...Alan perhaps or Dylex? I think I kind of like Dylex but it sounds like a brand of paint or something... what do you guys think? Reviews make me super duper happy :) **


	8. Chapter 8: Goofy Grin

**Thank you gypsy rosalie, bookaholic2000 and Guest for their reviews. Just a reminder my update day is Friday (in Australia). Small announcement this story broke the 1000 view mark just after I posted Chapter 7 and they're rising fast :) Thank you everyone for the interest in this fic! **

**Alright, I think you'll all enjoy this chapter so I'll let you get to it :) **

Chapter 8: Goofy Grin

Alex stared at her phone. It had taken a while to sink in due to her sore nose, yet it had finally hit her: she had Dylan's number. She had been gawking at it for a few minutes now, trying to figure out what this meant, and what to do. _Am I meant to call him, what would I say? Urgh, I've never been in this situation before!_ Alex lamented. She found herself wishing that Hayley was home so she could give her advice_. But Hayley wouldn't help you with a crush on her boyfriend, _the sane part of her brain reminded her. _Ex boyfriend,_ that voice piped up again. Alex let out a groan and fell into her pillow. Why did everything have to be so hard! With an angry sigh she put her phone down, determined not to text or call Dylan. 'I'll just wait until he texts me about the next band practice.' She told herself.

A knock on her door startled her out of her contemplations and she quickly hid her phone before answering.

'Alex honey, we need... What happened to your face?' Claire's face changed from an expression of parental superiority to utter shock and panic within five seconds. She rushed over to Alex's bedside and began squeezing her daughter's nose to check if it was broken.

'I guess it's still really swollen.' Alex smirked.

'What happened?!' Claire demanded.

'Dylan was trying to get me to open the window by throwing rocks at it; Dylan being Dylan, of course, he threw another rock just as I opened the window.' Alex motioned at her nose to show the finished product.

'Honestly that boy!' Claire muttered vehemently. 'I've never liked him; why does he still come around here.'

'Well it's okay, nothings broken, and the bruising should go down before school on Monday.' Alex shrugged.

'Alright well you just rest sweetie, I'll go and get you an icepack.' Her mother left the room muttering phrases under her breath, which sounded oddly like "thick as a brick" and "drive that death trap car of his into a lake."

_Not Dylan's biggest fan then,_ Alex thought to herself. With a sigh she picked up her phone and found Dylan's number again. Not wanting to call or text him, just wanting to look at it and feel the warm reassurance she felt from knowing they were getting closer.

'Look honey, I know what it's like to be a teenager.' Claire sighed as she sat on Alex's bed and held an icepack gently to her nose. 'I know that older guys with their leather jackets and guitars just seem so cool.' Her eyes glazed slightly, no doubt reminiscing about her youth.

'Mum I'm not...'

'I'm not done sweetie.' Claire said sharply before returning to her nurturing tone with unnerving agility. 'But you're not like Hayley or I, you're so smart and independent; I'm actually frightened that one day you'll lock us in the garage because you obviously have no need for the other members of this family.' Claire paused, grimacing as she wondered if she'd planted the idea in her daughter's head.

'Don't be absurd, you guys are much too loud, the neighbours would make a noise complaint and then I'd have to explain it to the police.' Alex scoffed.

'A science geek like you couldn't figure out a way to sound proof the garage? I must say I'm a little disappointed in you, young lady.'

'What was your point?' Alex frowned.

'The point is, you're so smart, and Dylan, well, he's Dylan. I always thought you'd fall for someone smart, someone with who you could discuss all the science and maths stuff that you can't talk about with us.' Claire patted her hand.

'I always thought that too, but honestly look at my past love interests: the star of the soccer team in primary school, and that glorified Mario brother I met at the dude ranch. Sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants. And it's with whom not with who.' Alex's obsession with grammar transcended even the sanctity of a rare heart to heart with her mum.

'But what about Sanjay?' Claire asked after she'd rolled her eyes. 'He's a nice boy, and he's super smart, you could have really good conversations with him.'

'I already have really good conversations with him without dating him.' Alex sighed. 'I bet you never thought you'd fall for Dad, I mean he's nice enough, but he's a complete goofball.'

'But that was different, your Dad wasn't four years older than me.' Claire pointed out. 'I just want you to be careful honey. Sooner or later natural selection is going to catch up with that kid, and I don't want you to get hurt in the process.'

'I think I'm the one you have to worry about least in this family.' Alex smiled.

'Or perhaps the most, you have so much potential, I just don't want you to throw your life away on boys, there will be plenty of time for that when you win a Nobel Prize.' Claire removed the icepack from Alex's nose and ran her fingers affectionately over her daughter's cheek.

'Thanks mum, don't worry when the others finally drive you crazy I'll buy you a secluded apartment so you can recuperate.'

'Aww honey, I'm not sure you will even graduated in time for that.' Claire grimaced. 'You can come to me with anything, you know, I promise to try and not freak out too much.'

'I'm not sure that's a promise you can keep.' Alex grinned.

'Well look at it from my perspective, you're the only one in this family who is guaranteed to do well. I just want to keep you on that path; there aren't exactly a whole lot of good role models for you.'

'Thanks mum.' Alex smiled; she really enjoyed it when she had mature conversations with her mum. A lot of the time she felt like the only adult in the family, and it was nice to know that Claire was proud of her.

* * *

'Hi, how are you feeling?' Alex jumped almost a foot as the voice startled her from her introspection. Dylan was leaning against his car in front of the school, smirking slightly as he watched the confusion take hold of her facial features.

'Oh hi Dylan, I didn't think you had to be here this early.' Alex said nervously, trying to ignore the tingles of anticipation as he approached her.

'Your nose seems to be better.' He said softly, ignoring her last statement. Without any warning he grabbed her heavy backpack and swung it onto his back, walking casually with her into the school.

'What are you doing?' Alex giggled. 'I mean I can carry my books by myself.' She cleared her throat in annoyance and corrected herself with the second statement.

'I know you can,' Dylan smirked at her from under his fringe.

'Oh, alright...' Alex smiled nervously back, not wanting to question this sweet gesture. They walked together in silence, simply enjoying each others' company, Alex enjoying the confused looks of the popular girls even more so. When they arrived at her class she considered 'mixing up' her rooms so she could walk with him some more, however she didn't want to be late to class. 'Well ummmm this is my room.' She said, gesturing awkwardly to the door.

'Alright well I better give you your bag so you can go and learn to be brilliant.' Dylan said, looking down at her with a small smile on his lips. Alex smiled and hid her face behind her hair, pleased by the attention,

'Dylan, my bag.' She giggled realizing he still hadn't given it to her.

'Oh right, I'll text you later.' Dylan handed her bag back.

'I'll watch for it.' Alex blurted out. 'Oh gosh, I mean, I'll text you back if I remember, whatever.' Dylan grinned at the girl in front of him who was steadily growing redder. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder and looked as though he was going to say something else.

'Hey Alex, did you hear we're going to be starting a new topic today!' Sanjay beamed at her from behind Dylan.

'Well Seeya.' Dylan gave her shoulder a squeeze and loped off. Alex turned to watch him leave as Sanjay chatted away, speculating at the possible next topic, unaware of her vacant eyes or goofy grin.

**Oooooh could feelings finally be starting to surface for both parties? Did anyone get the warm and fuzzies reading this because I definitely felt them while I was writing the last scene :) Please review if you enjoyed it, I absolutely love hearing from you guys :) **


	9. Chapter 9: It's Complicated

**Hey Dylex shippers I know I'm posting a day early, but this is just in celebration of finishing my last essay of the semester :) :) **

**Thankyou gypsy rosalie, bookaholic2000, haryama, Guest, Newbie and Michi1314 for their reviews, they all made me smile :) Alright so let's get on with the story, just a quick disclaimer though. **

**WARNING: Insane cuteness levels and another Dylan song :P**

Chapter 9: It's Complicated

_Ugh I wish I had a girlfriend to talk about this with!_ Alex lamented. _I can't discuss it with my family because they'll flip out and mum reads all of our diaries so I can't even get it out there! _She paced around her room, stewing over the issue. Alex thought Dylan liked her but she wasn't entirely sure, perhaps she was just projecting her feelings onto him and seeing what she wanted. After all Dylan was gorgeous and Alex, well Alex was just the weird nerdy girl. With a sigh Alex plonked herself down on her bed, why was this silly boy suddenly all she could think about. _What is going on with me?_ Alex frowned. Suddenly the answer came to her and she found herself whispering it before she'd even consciously released it. 'I like Dylan.' She whispered, a small smile tugging at her lips as she confessed it to the empty room. 'I like Dylan.' She said it a little louder, relishing the sense of freedom that it brought as the words left her mouth.

'What did you just say?' A hysterical looking Claire burst through the door.

'I said I like chicken.' Alex said without skipping a beat. 'Have you already planned dinner, because chicken would be nice.'

'Have I already planned dinner?' Claire crossed her arms over her chest and gave her daughter a disbelieving look. 'If you went down to the kitchen you would see the plan with the whole months meals on the fridge.'

'Sorry mum, I was just in the mood for chicken.' Alex shrugged.

'Well then.' Claire turned her back on Alex and opened the door. 'And for your information tonight is fish night.' Alex grinned to herself as the door shut behind her mother, that was a close call. Somehow though, she felt much better. _Admitting the problem is the first step to recovery isn't it? _And this was a problem that Alex desperately wanted to recover from.

'Why the rush honey?' Claire gave her daughter a stern look as she watched her shovel food into her mouth at a truly remarkable speed. 'If you're not careful you'll give yourself indigestion.'

'Dylan is picking me up in ten minutes for band practice.' Alex managed to explain between mouthfuls.

'Dylan.' Her mother managed to get more disappointment and disapproval into those two syllables than had ever been accomplished before in human history.

'Dylans going to be here?' Phil perked up. 'Maybe I could finally play him that song I wrote.' He rose from the table, obviously intending to grab his guitar but a stern look from his wife stopped him in his tracks and he slowly sat back down.

'So, the science fair is coming up.' Alex used the stony silence as a chance to change the topic.

'Cool, are you going to reanimate dead animals, create an antidote for zombies ooh or you could build a device that allows us to communicate with aliens.' Luke's eyes lit up with all the possibilities.

'No, no, and I'm pretty sure NASA has got that last one covered.' Alex shook her head at her little brother. 'I was thinking I could create a low cost water purifier for use in Africa or a mosquito repellent to reduce the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria.'

'I'm so proud of you honey.' Claire said before turning back to her husband. 'Phil honey, we don't want Dylan around here anymore so you're not to encourage him.'

'You're so smart, if anyone is going to figure out how to do those things it's you.' Luke smiled sweetly at his sister.

'Thank you.' Alex smiled, surprised at Luke's compliment.

'Just remember how much I love you when it comes time to give out the immunity shots during the zombie apocalypse.' Alex rolled her eyes; she should've known it was too fake to be true.

'Oooh I wonder who that could be.' Phil sprung up like a hopeful puppy when the doorbell rang.

'No, stay!' Claire ordered her husband. 'I'll deal with this.'

'Hi Mrs. D.' Dylan shifted uncomfortably on the doorstep. 'You look lovely this evening, is Alex ready?'

'No, she's...'

'Coming!' Alex shovelled the last forkful of food into her mouth and came to the door.

'Do you have your jello?' Dylan reminded her.

'Oh, right.' Alex could've kicked herself.

'Do you want me to help you with it?'

'No, you can stay right down here, thank you very much young man.' Claire said in her best scolding tone, and it was a very good scolding tone at that, having had years and four kids to practice it on.

'Okay, I'll wait here.' Dylan nodded awkwardly, still barred from entering the house by Claire's arm. He looked at Alex's mum, about to engage her in small talk before deciding better.

'Alright, ready to go.' Alex pushed her way past her mum and waved cheerily. 'I'll be back soon.'

'If you're not back by ten I'm putting out an amber alert young lady!' Claire yelled after her, making Alex cringe in embarrassment.

'Why do I find myself feeling like I need to apologise after every interaction we have with my mother?' Alex groaned once they were both in Dylan's car.

'It's okay.' Dylan smiled kindly down at her, noticing how her eyes were the same colour as chocolate. He caught himself staring and quickly cast around for something to ruin the mood. 'Your sister used to apologise for all of your family every time I spoke to any of you.' Alex broke his gaze and stared at the floor, seemingly deep in contemplation. Mission accomplished, Dylan pulled out of the driveway and drove to Brian's place, resisting the urge to sneak glances at her as he drove.

'Hey Alex, I see you brought your guitar.' Craig greeted her.

'How many times do I have to tell you Brian, it's a yell-o.' Dylan sighed exasperatedly, earning a snicker from Alex.

'Woah, it's called a YOLO?' Craig's eyebrows disappeared into his hair. 'Dude, I didn't know that YOLO was created around Jesus' time. Why are we still using it when he obviously proved it wrong?'

'You think Jesus played the cello?' Alex was baffled by this entirely new plane of stupidity.

'Yeah, he had a pretty sick band called Jesus and the twelve apostles and they totally booked out all the inns and stuff.'

'Yes, and I've heard that the Romans were particularly big fans of his.' Alex nodded, sarcasm dripping from every word. Dylan grinned at her, aware that she was playing with Craig's mind. He was relieved to not be on the receiving end of her sarcasm for once, and now removed from it he was able to see just how witty she was.

'Alright, enough of that, we should start practicing,' Dylan started unpacking his guitar.

'Yo, are you finally going to play us that song you've been writing?' Brian asked, drumming on Dylan's back as he was tuning his guitar.

'I don't know, I'm not really sure about this song.' Dylan muttered.

'Come on man, we've got that band contest in a few months and we need a new song.' Craig joined in the pestering.

'Fine.' Dylan sighed, he walked over to the mic as his band mates settled themselves on the couch in front of him. 'This song is called_ It's Complicated_.

_She's the girl that makes my heart sing,_

_Gives me inspiration like no-one and nothing. _

_She snuck into my life, put her hands over my eyes _

_And now "guess who" I can't get out of my mind. _

_Even though I can never have you, you snuck into my heart. _

_Your family, age, dreams and brain will always keep us apart. _

_ I'll just hope for a chance even if it's belated,_

_But for now my relationship status is "It's complicated." _

_Through your eyes I see the world a whole lot differently,_

_You've shown me dreams which before I could never see. _

_I never want to go back to my ignorance, _

_So please, I beg, just give me a chance. _

_You're just too good for me I know, _

_So why, oh why can't I let you go. _

_I won't be able to help you soar, _

_But from life I also want more. _

_Even though I can never have you, you snuck into my heart. _

_Your family, age, dreams and brain will always keep us apart. _

_ I'll just hope for a chance even if it's belated,_

_But for now my relationship status is "It's complicated." _

_So please, please, my owl hear my plea, _

_Because all my heart thinks of is you and me. _

_All day and night I have no reprieve,_

_But baby if you don't feel similarly _

_Just tell me and I will leave. _

Dylan's eyes which had been closed while he played the song, suddenly snapped open as he played the last chord and locked onto Alex's wide brown ones. 'So what did you think?' His eyes didn't move from hers when he spoke and Alex sensed that the question was directed at her.

'I like it, but it's a bit depressing. The ladies will go nuts for that sensitive stuff though!' Brian nodded his approval.

'We could play around with a rock version, but a song like that would be better left acoustic.' Craig added thoughtfully. 'I really liked that instagram reference.

'Dude it's facebook.' Dylan corrected him, he looked over to Alex to share eye rolls or knowing looks but she was still stunned.

'Whatever, why are you so quiet Alex, you usually y are you so quiet Alex, you usually have an opinion on everything.' Craig asked, directing all the attention towards her.

'Yeah, it was a great song.' Alex tittered nervously. Dylan's eyes seemed to bore into hers, as if trying to elicit her thoughts. _Oh wow, was that song about me?_

**So what did you guys think? Leave me a review to let me know. By the way, I'm thinking of having 'my owl' as Dylan's pet name for Alex? What do you guys think? See you next Friday :)**


	10. Chapter 10: Sleepless Nights

**Hey Dylex shippers, hope everyone is well. I'd like to thank gypsy rosalie and Guest for their reviews, as well as GeekGirl5000, welcome aboard, Alex is one of my fave characters too and I can't picture her with anyone else either. Anyway I'll let you get on with the story, enjoy! :)**

Chapter 10: Sleepless Nights

Alex glanced restlessly at the clock; this was the fourth night in a row she had seen the numbers 3.30 flashing back at her, a cruel taunt to her insomniac mind. Out of habit she glanced at her phone; it had been three days since she heard Dylan's song and three days since she'd heard from him. Who sings a song like that and then completely ignores the person it was written about? Alex though furiously. _But what if it wasn't about you? _The doubtful part of her mind asked. She sighed and rolled over, studying the shadows on the wall; she wasn't sure why all of a sudden it was so important to know what Dylan was thinking, but lately it was all she thought about. _Just get some sleep, you'll see him tomorrow. _She told herself, wriggling into a comfortable position for sleep.

* * *

'Alex?' Sanjay was observing her with concern.

'Sorry, did I zone out again?' Alex shook her head.

'Yes, I noticed when you didn't laugh at my extremely witty joke about the football team.' Sanjay looked wounded.

'Again, I'm sorry, I haven't been sleeping well lately.' Alex grimaced.

'Are you okay?' Sanjay frowned. 'What's been keeping you up?'

'You can't tell anyone!' Alex warned. 'But I've been thinking about Dylan, I have feelings for him and I think he has feelings for me too.'

'Lunchlady Dylan?' Sanjay's features rearranged themselves into a united look of disbelief.

'Don't call him that!' Alex hissed angrily. 'His in between job doesn't define him!'

'Whatever.' Sanjay rolled his eyes. 'I can't believe you're turning into another one of those girls who fawns over an older guy just because he's popular.'

'I'm not fawning over him, and that's not why I like him!' Alex glared at Sanjay in a way which would make her mother proud.

'Look, let's just change the subject now and I'll forget we even discussed such a crazy idea.' Sanjay offered in what he considered to be a diplomatic way.

'Fine, I don't know why I even bothered.' Alex snapped, turning back to her notebook to furiously scribble down the notes on the blackboard. Sanjay sighed and turned back to his work, sensing her hostility, he'd simply have to wait for her to cool down a bit before resuming normal conversation.

* * *

'So how was your weekend anyway?' Sanjay asked timidly as they made their way towards the lunchroom.

'Not too bad considering I have to put up with my family full time.' Alex answered. 'I only wish I was able to get my assignment done.'

'Did your family get in your way again.' Sanjay sympathised. He'd met Alex's family a few times and was frankly amazed at how Alex put up with the bunch of imbeciles.

'Among other things.' Alex replied dryly, referencing their earlier conversation. 'I've just had far too many sleepless nights to be able to give it my best effort.'

'Oh, okay.' Sanjay said, awkwardly trying to sidestep being dragged into this line of conversation again.

'Alex,' Alex looked up at the sound of her name and noticed that she was standing in front of Dylan.

'Hi,' she said quietly. She watched him grab her tray and ladle slop onto it while she tried to think of something to say.

'I'll come over and see you later,' Dylan said finally, handing back her tray.

'She can't, we're going to be working on an assignment together.' Sanjay piped up, shooting Dylan a furious look. Dylan regarded the skinny teen in front of him with an amused look and shrugged.

'Alright, I'll text you.' He smiled at Alex and handed Sanjay back his full tray.

'We haven't got plans to work on an assignment.' Alex hissed once they'd found a table.

'I thought I'd give you a hand since you're having trouble.' Sanjay smiled guiltily up at her. 'Plus I wasn't sure if you were angry at Dylan or not so I wanted to give you an out.'

'Oh, well thank you.' Alex smiled, touched by her friend's kindness. 'But I'm not mad at Dylan, quite the opposite really.'

'Can I still come over and help you with your assignment, I don't know how you're feeling but the thought of leaving an assignment until two weeks before the due date is giving me hives, even if it's not _my_ assignment.'

'Let me guess, you had yours done the weekend after it was issued.' Alex smirked.

'Umm yes! I didn't want to take any time away for my project for the science fair. If I do say so myself, my experiment in robotics has potential for future use in the medical field. It might even win me a Nobel Prize someday!' Sanjay rubbed his hands together excitedly. Alex rolled her eyes as she realised the main difference between Sanjay and herself; illustrated perfectly by their choice of project: Alex's water filtering system and Sanjay's robotics of glory. _Still, progress is progress_, Alex thought, _and humanity wouldn't be where it is today without the determination of egotistical scientists. _

**I know it's just a little bit of a filler but the next chapter is going to be good, so bear with me :) Please review, let me know what you thought, I'm also open to any predictions (though sometimes maybe it's a bit obvious what I'm setting up.) Also feel free to suggest scenes you might want to see... until next Friday keep calm and ship Dylex :p**


	11. Chapter 11: Logically We Shouldn't

**Happy Friday everyone! Ready for the next chapter? Thank you gypsy rosalie, bookaholic2000, Reyna15 and Sam for your reviews. It means a lot to me when I hear from my awesome readers so please leave some love below, especially because this chapter is all kinds of cute! :) **

Chapter 11: Logically We Shouldn't Get Along

'I thought you were meant to be helping me.' Alex said rather sharply as Sanjay almost knocked her collection of Dr Who DVDs flying.

'Sure, where are you up to?' Sanjay gingerly put them back and joined her.

'So for the background research for my filtration system I've been looking at the chemical filters versus more natural methods such as screen filters to try and figure out what kind of filtration system I'm going to use. The only problem is there's so many of them I'm not sure which ones will be suitable.'

'Well you want to apply it in Africa don't you?' Sanjay asked after a moment of thought. 'Why don't you research the filtration needs specific to that continent?'

'Right, and then I can narrow down the filtration methods based on the specific needs.' Alex smiled, jumping aboard Sanjay's train of thought. She nodded thoughtfully and began researching this new side, pulling a book towards her for cross referencing. Sanjay watched her as she intently flipped through pages, stopping only to scribble notes or push her hair out of her face.

'Alex...' He hesitated as she looked up from her research. 'I need to get something off my chest, a confession if you will.'

'Yes?' Alex said warily.

'I find that my body creates an excess of dopamine and adrenaline when I'm around you, and I've felt this for some time.' Sanjay's words came out in a rush. 'And I think that you might be experiencing similar neurotransmissions around Dylan, but I beg you not to choose him. I don't feel this way because of your looks or personality, I feel this way because when we have intellectual discussions it is pure magic. I see us making a real difference in this world and having kids with IQ levels the likes of which have never been seen before.' Alex stared at him, still trying to process the barrage of words which had just spilled out of his mouth; _did he say something about kids?! _

'This isn't about your feelings for me.' Alex said slowly, working this out as she went. 'The only reason you're telling me this now is because you know you're about to lose me to Dylan!'

'I think you're making a mistake even considering him as a potential mate.' Sanjay scolded. 'This nonsense has gone on far too long; I don't know why you even spoke to him in the first place!'

'In case you haven't noticed, you have no right to tell me what I should or should not do with my life. You offered me advice and I chose to ignore it, I take full responsibility for any consequences that may arise. So now it is none of your business who I choose to date.'

'You're actually considering dating him?!' Sanjay stared at her in disbelief. 'With all the idiots you put up with here, you're actually voluntarily going to add another one?'

'He's not an idiot!' Alex clenched her fists at her sides. 'Honestly you don't need to be so rude to people, the whole world doesn't revolve around you Sanjay.'

'Not yet anyway.' Sanjay muttered. 'Anyway, now you know my feelings for you, it'd be rude of _you_ to hurt me by having a relationship with Dylan.'

'So that's your end game is it?' Alex's eyes narrowed. 'If you can't have me then no-one will; that's very mature, why don't you ask the stalkers how that's going for them.'

'I'm just saying it would be heartless of you to rub your relationship in my face when you know I have feelings for you.' Sanjay held his hands up in defence, he detested being compared to a common criminal- a mastermind maybe, but never a common criminal.

'Really and if the roles were reversed, you'd forsake a relationship with someone you really liked just to spare my feelings?' Alex raised her eyebrows.

'No, that's different?' Sanjay sounded doubtful in his answer all the same.

'I don't plan on rubbing my happiness in your face, but at the same time I'm not going to risk missing out on something special just because you're petty enough to try and make me feel bad about it.' Alex said. 'I will agree not to discuss my relationship with you, or hang out with him around you at all if you'd prefer, but you're not going to stop the relationship altogether.'

'Fine,' Sanjay rolled his eyes. 'If I can't stop you taking this giant leap of insanity through rational reasoning, then I guess nothing will.'

'I don't know about that.' Alex muttered under her breath, 'I'm sure my mum will give it her best try.'

'Just don't come running back to me when the relationship fails, now you've rejected me there's no second chance.' Sanjay warned. 'Once I win a Nobel Prize for my robotics project I'll have girls lining up to date me.' Alex rolled her eyes at this; how on earth did she become friends with this conceited jerk.

'I don't plan to.' She scoffed.

* * *

Alex was still lying awake when she heard her parents go to bed that night. In between exclamations of _I can't believe the nerve of that jerk Sanjay_, her mind was excitedly working out the logistics of her filtration system. She was certain she'd be able to make a low cost, easily maintained system which would provide the people of Africa with clean drinking water. Granted it was only one tick on the long list of things which needed to be fixed, but it would make a drastic improvement to the overall health of the population.

She suddenly sat bolt upright in bed, she could've sworn she heard her window creaking. A shadow was visible against her curtains and Alex gulped, looking around for a weapon.

'Alex?' She heard a familiar voice.

'Dylan?' She whispered back.

'Oh good, you're awake.' He approached quietly.

'What are you doing here?' Alex asked. 'You honestly can't tell me this is easier than sending me a text.'

'No, but I think we need to talk in person.' Dylan explained. 'Get changed, I don't want to risk waking your parents.' He went and sat on Hayley's old bed, his back to Alex to allow her some privacy.

'Ready.' Alex whispered after a minute. She had simply pulled on the jeans and t-shirt she had been wearing that day. Dylan got silently up from the bed and led her over to the window.

'You just need to hold onto the drain pipe.' Dylan explained. 'Watch how I do it.' Alex watched intently as Dylan quickly climbed down, trying to memorise every foothold while her heart thumped like crazy. He jumped the last foot, landing on the ground and turning to beckon her down.

'Here we go.' Alex muttered to herself, taking a deep breath and following his lead. She climbed a lot slower than Dylan had, scared at every move that she'd lose her grip or the drainpipe would come away from the wall. Finally she felt Dylan's hands on her back, lifting her down the last foot.

'I'm impressed.' Dylan grinned, taking her hand and walking her to where his car was parked a little further down the block.

'So that song?' Alex asked as Dylan started the engine.

'Does it freak you out that it's about you?' Dylan turned to look at her for a second before pulling out of his spot.

'I think the possibilities it raises make me a little nervous.' Alex confessed. 'If you really meant what you said...'

'I did.' Dylan nodded emphatically.

'Then why did you avoid me for three days?' Alex's eyes portrayed the hurt she'd felt. Dylan sighed, rubbed his head and pulled the car over. He got out and opened Alex's door for her. She looked around, noticing they had driven to the local park without her realising. When she went to look back at Dylan she saw that he was already loping over to the small pond. 'You haven't answered my question.' Alex said when she'd finally caught up. She sat down next to Dylan on the grass and watched him for his response.

'I wanted to give you time to consider what I was saying.' Dylan explained. 'I'm a lot older than you and your mum already doesn't like me so it's not going to be easy. I know you like to logically think things through so I wanted to let you do that without influencing your decision.'

'Logically we shouldn't get along at all.' Alex sighed. 'I think logic went out the window when we started hanging out.'

'I don't want that.' Dylan looked sad. 'I don't want you to feel the need to change or dumb yourself down at all. You're so smart and witty, and I'm scared that if you're with someone like me you'll miss the chance to realise your own potential.' Alex couldn't help but smile in spite of herself; it was such a contrast to her conversation earlier that night.

'You won't hold me back in any way.' Alex said sincerely. 'In fact you've helped me to grow. When I talk to Sanjay I see how superior his intelligence makes him feel and the way he looks down on everyone else around him. I used to be like that too, but you've taught me compassion, I know now that people's talents lie in different areas.'

'Really?' Dylan's face lit up.

'Yes, think of us like the scarecrow and tinman; you have the heart and I have the brain, but when we're together we share them so we both become whole.'

'So I'm teaching you things too?' Dylan beamed at her. 'Phew, I was so scared I was holding you back and you were getting sick of all my dumbness.'

'I'm not sure what's wrong with me but I actually find it endearing when you say something silly.' Alex laughed.

'I guess the only question now is what do you think about us?' Dylan asked nervously. Alex looked across the pond, not taking in the picturesque view as her brain worked on the question.

'I'm not sure yet.' She said finally. 'Let's spend a little more time in each others' company and see how it goes.'

'Okay, take all the time you need.' Dylan smiled and moved towards her so he could wrap her in his arms. Alex sighed happily and leaned her head against his chest.

**Awwww, I hope you guys loved this chapter as much as I did! Leave me your thoughts below, until next friday :) **


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